Q. We are performing a Citrajet, citric acid passivation using the procedure found in your cell phone app. When finished, there are circles of “oil” floating on the Citrajet solution, even though our parts had no oil on them. The oil (which kind of looks like the fat floating on chicken noodle soup) goes back into solution for the next cleaning. Is this normal?

A. Glad you found the Alconox, Inc. App useful. And thanks for the descriptive observation. What you are seeing is not oil, but low-foaming surfactant coming out of solution. We call this, “clouding out.” This is normal and expected. The surfactant sits on top of the Citrajet® Low-Foam Liquid Acid Cleaner/Rinse detergent solution and, as you note, it goes back into solution and rinses away cleanly. The citric acid passivation action is still functioning.

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